1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of computer systems and, more particularly, to software used in computer system restores.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the computer industry, it may sometimes be desirable to migrate one system to another. If the source and target systems have identical hardware, this may not be a problem. However, if the source and target systems have dissimilar hardware, the task of migrating the source system to the target system may be difficult and time-consuming, if not impossible. The reasons a direct restoration of a source system's files to a target system with different hardware may fail may include, but are not limited to, the following. The source system's backup image does not always have the device drivers for the new hardware. The source system's backup image may include configuration information that pertains to the old hardware and is not applicable to the new. The quantity of hardware components (disk, mass storage controllers, network interface cards, processors, etc.) may change, requiring additional configuration.
IBM creates a partial system configuration in their AIX “mksysb” image. This partial system configuration cannot be modified. HP does something similar in their ignite product. Both are tightly associated with the original system hardware and with a backup image. Inventory capturing software (e.g. Tivoli's Configuration Manager) catalogs a computer system's hardware and software configuration. However, this catalog is not sufficient for reproducing the computer system on other hardware. For example, it does not include the computer's data files. The purpose of these inventory systems is to enumerate pieces of hardware and software or to identify computer systems for software distribution.
Cloning products that work with images (e.g. mksysb for AIX, Symantec's Ghost for PCs) typically require similar hardware. At a minimum, they require the same mass storage device or they cannot boot. Backup/restore packages perform file backup of data files, but typically do not include hardware configurations and settings. System image packages (e.g. Symantec's Ghost) generate an image of both configuration and data, but are not editable. These images cannot be moved or placed on other types or configurations of systems.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a backup and restore mechanism that captures both hardware configuration and settings and data (files) from a system. It is also desirable that the hardware configuration be movable to other target systems with potentially dissimilar hardware, and editable to fix discrepancies in hardware configurations between the source and target systems.